1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, a television program broadcast system, a computer program for implementing the information processing method, and a computer-readable storage medium on which the computer program is stored, for use in a digital television receiver capable of displaying and/or recording a television program in a timer-controlled automatic operation mode.
2. Description of the Related Art
The television broadcast system is now in the middle of transition from that based on analog technology to that based on digital technology. The innovation in the digital television technique has made it possible to use television broadcast as an advanced information and communication medium. In Japan, digital television broadcast service using a broadcast satellite has begun.
An advantage of the digital television broadcast is that not only video data and audio data but also other various kinds of data can be provided in an integrated form. Another advantage of the digital television broadcast is that a greater number of channels can be transmitted than can be transmitted by the analog television broadcast technique. For example, in CS digital broadcast service called “Sky Perfect TV”, a large number of channels greater than 100 channels are available.
However, the large number of channels can cause users to have difficulty in selecting a desired television program from the large number of programs.
In digital broadcast service, to avoid the above problem, program information for use in selecting a desired program is provided to users (viewers).
More specifically, a television program provider (in a broadcast station) broadcasts program information associated with television programs in addition to television program content data. In a television receiver at a user, an electronic program guide (EPG) table is produced on the basis of the received program information and the resultant EPG table is displayed on the screen of the television receiver. The program information includes a program identification number, a program name, a broadcast channel, the genre of the program, a description of the program content such as a description of the cast or the like, a broadcast date, a broadcast start time, and a broadcast end time.
From the EPG table displayed on the screen of the television receiver, the user can recognize what programs are being broadcast or will be broadcast, and the user can easily select a desired program from a large number of programs. Furthermore, on the EPG table, the user can set a desired program to be viewed/recorded in a timer-controlled automatic operation mode.
However, because information associated with a large number of programs is described in the form of text data in the EPG table, the user may still have some difficulty in finding a desired program of a desired genre.
To avoid the above problem, in producing the EPG table at the television receiver, it has been proposed to extract genre information from program information associated with television programs transmitted from the broadcast station, and to shade fields of programs in the EPG table with particular colors depending on the genres indicated by the genre information, thereby allowing the user to easily select a desired program of a desired genre.
However, in the conventional television receiver, it is not allowed to set the timer-controlled automatic operation on the EPG table in units of sub-programs, although setting is allowed in units of programs.
For example, when a program includes a plurality of sub-programs such as a news program, a sports program, a feature program, and a weather forecast program, a user cannot designate a particular one (for example, the sports program) of those sub-programs to be viewed/recorded in the timer-controlled automatic operation mode, although it is allowed to designate the program as a whole to be viewed/recorded.
Furthermore, in the conventional television receiver, when the EPG table is produced, categorization is performed not in units of sub-programs but in units of programs. This makes it impossible to categorize a program when the program includes a plurality of sub-programs of different genres. For example, when a program broadcast at the end of a day includes sub-programs such as highlights of news of that day, highlights of sports games of that day, top-ranking music of that day, and weather forecast of next day, the program including those sub-programs cannot be categorized in a particular genre. Thus, such a program is not categorized, and a user cannot recognize the genre of the program.